So often we think we know the essence of a character or how we are supposed to understand their interactions with Jesus. Our appreciation of a story tends not to be shaped by the narrative itself but rather by the way the story is interpreted for us through preachers and commentators. When a character is only presented one particular way, that ends up being the only way we see the character. Take the women at the well, the central character, besides Jesus that is, of our scripture this morning, For decades, preachers and commentators alike have mistreated this character by allowing us to “know” her as “immoral,” “sensuous,” “promiscuous,” and “unchaste.” Some sermons have even gone as far as describing her as a prostitute, a fallen woman, a harlot… For all intents and purposes, according to these experts she is definitely a woman of ill repute and the grace of the story resides in the fact that through Jesus, God even forgives a woman such as this.
Woah. Is that what we just heard? Is that what you got from the story? Here’s a spoiler… nope. Think back on the story… did you actually hear Jesus call her a sinner or to go and sin no more like he did with the woman caught in adultery? There’s nothing in the story that indicates the woman was promiscuous, immoral or even close to “bad” in any way. This is not a story about saving a woman from the sinfulness of her ways rather it IS a story of Jesus revealing himself as the Messiah. He tells his authentic identity to a woman who is thirsty spiritually, who is smart and eager to learn, and who he sees has a gift for preaching and (gasp) evangelism. In case you didn’t get that, this story isn’t about “saving” the woman, but rather is about Jesus being seen as Messiah.
So let’s forget about what the story isn’t about and focus on what it is about… and we start with something Barbara Brown Taylor points out. She writes: “Jesus talks longer to the woman at the well than he does to anyone else in all the Gospels – longer than he talks to any of his disciples, longer than he talks to any of his accusers, longer than he talks to any of his own family. She is the first person he reveals himself to in the Gospel of John. She is the first outside to guess who he is and tell others. She is the first evangelist, John tells us, and her testimony brings many to faith.”
Wait what? This unnamed woman is the very first person to hear the truth about Jesus and straight away becomes an evangelist, bringing the knowledge of Jesus, the Messiah, to her entire city. All that from a “fallen” woman? Heck, all of this “good news” happening through a woman is earth shattering enough.
Jesus’ choice is a curious one, because he couldn’t have chosen a more outside outsider than this woman. This woman was a triple threat: first, she was a Samaritan which automatically pushes her to the edges, especially where the Jews were concerned. The enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was ancient, entrenched and bitter. “The two groups disagree about everything that matters: how to honour God, how to interpret the scriptures, and how and where to worship.” Quite honestly they hate each other’s guts.
Second she was a woman in a time when women weren’t what you might call liberated. Women weren’t allowed to worship with the men, full segregation being the practice of the day. Heck, the men even had morning devotions that included the prayer “thank God I am not a woman.” As you can imagine it was a woman was not to be seen or heard kind of world. Even the priests didn’t talk to their wives in public. Finally, this woman was a fallen woman. How do we know? Well, the respectable women made their trips to the well in the early morning so they could greet each other and catch up on all the gossip, er, news. Our woman was the kind of person the women talked about. The fact that she went to the well in the hottest part of the day tells us that she was not welcomed with the other ladies. She’d been married as many times “as Elizabeth Taylor” and was living in sin, so she was the talk of the town. It was just easier to bypass all that chatter, and go after everyone else had been there.
It’s on her afternoon well trip that she discovers a tired and thirsty Jesus sitting beside the well. The first thing Jesus says in the story is “give me a drink.” We have no idea how long he had been there. The heat was a dangerous thing. Honestly, don’t you think that the Messiah could have gotten his needed water if he really wanted? Instead, he waits. He waits for the outsider to come and offer him cool water. He waits so that this woman can be the one to see the Messiah in his humanness. He is thirsty, she has a jar capable of holding the water and she responds to his need. This humanness opens the door for a life transforming conversation.
As the two talk it becomes clear just how much Jesus knows about her life. This is the sordidness of her life. Five marriages, and now living with a man she is not married to. Oh the water well gossip. But as Nadia Bolz Webber points out “there are any number of reasons why the Samaritan woman might have had the past she had. Perhaps she was married off as a teen bride, then widowed and passed along among her dead husband’s brothers, as per the ‘Levirate marriage’ practice of the day. Maybe her various husbands abandon her because she’s infertile. Maybe she’s a victim of abuse. Maybe she has a disability.” We don’t know but what we do know is that she wouldn’t have had the legal power to end her marriages, divorce rested with the man. Or she’s a widow.
This is the person Jesus sees. A woman seeking invisibility due to hurt and misunderstanding. He sees the whole of her – her past, present and future – and he names it all – without shaming, criticizing or condemning her. But being seen like that hits a little too close and she tries to steer the conversation away from herself by talking of the Messiah. “I know the Messiah is coming,” she blurts out… not sure what response she was looking for but Jesus’ “I am he” wasn’t it. It’s the first time Jesus has said this aloud to anyone, it is his very first confirmation of his Messianic identity. In this moment “the triple outsider and the Messiah of God stand face to face with no pretense about who they are. Both stand fully lit at high noon for one bright moment in time, while all the rules, taboos, and history that separate them fall forgotten to the ground.” (Barbara Brown Taylor)
In response, the unnamed Samaritan woman leaves her jar behind, and hustles back to town. This woman’s history – one of pain and isolation – becomes the evidence that she uses to proclaim Jesus’ identity. “Come and see” she says, knowing that they can’t, won’t take her word for it. They need to see him with their own eyes, hear him with their own ears. She openly and honestly shares her experience of Jesus with the people even though she is still learning and growing and questioning. Her curiosity becomes a tool that generates curiosity in others.
This woman is different than the other unnamed women we have met. Instead of just disappearing as soon as her role is complete, she is seen and affirmed by Jesus. This being seen not only deeply affects her, it leads to the revelation of Jesus’ identity. From that moment of revelation, the Samaritan woman needs others to see him, to see her as to see him. She doesn’t disappear, she grows into her faith. Jesus sticks around for two days so that everyone who hears her story, her testimony (gasp) can meet him and know that she is a reliable witness. She, like John the Baptist, like the Apostles, like Mary Magdelene, prepares the way for Jesus and he encourages her to do so. She doesn’t just fade away.
By confirming her true identity, Jesus reveals his own, and that is how it still happens. The Messiah is the one in whose presence you know who you really are – the good and the bad of it, the all of it, the hope in it. The Messiah is the one who shows you who you he is -the one who crosses all boundaries, breaks all rules, drops all disguises – speaking to you like someone you’ve known all your life, bubbling up like a well that needs no dipper, like a spring of living water, so that you go back to face the people you though you could never face again, speaking to them as boldly as Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. He needed this triple outsider to be the one to accept the revelation of his identity so that everyone could see and feel the reality of a love that is given without limit. We need the Samaritan woman to show that we are loved no matter where we have been and were we are right now. Jesus see us as we are, the good and bad of it, so that we might go out into the world shouting “come and see the one who told me everything I have ever done” with hope and with acceptance.
Amen.
